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Thursday, September 19, 2013

Review: Along For The Ride

Ever since her parents began fighting, Auden has been unable to sleep at night. Now, spending a summer at a charming beach town with her father and his new family, she has to find new places to pass the time she spends awake. And so she meets Eli, a fellow insomniac who becomes her nighttime guide. Together, they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she has missed; for Eli, to come to terms with the death of a friend.

This book is a cute coming-of-age story filled with plenty of sweet, and dramatic, moments! The start is cool and in the first few chapters, nothing much happens, but it still interested me. But the thing was, it wasn't a bad book at all, it just felt a bit purposeless, and it felt like I'd read too many stories like it. I think that was just because I've read a few books like it recently.

The book's characters formation and development was amazing, and though the characters weren't described in massive detail, I could completely form them in my head because of the reality of the book and the backgrounds given to the characters.

Dessen used lots of contrast, detail and description, which don't always seem right in modern, coming-of-age stories, but it did in this. It didn't appear old-fashioned, but beautiful and insightful. Naturally, the characters were all very regular teens, so there were issues, contradiction etc.

Another thing was the relationship strengths and developments between various family and friends to Auden. We could see every break and form, and the emotions and thoughts, even of other characters, were transparent. I loved the fact that I could emphasise, even though it was in a first person point of view.

In this book, there were quite a few amazing quotes. Firstly, this short sentence at the end of one paragraph, "And just like that, my summer changed.". Also, this one from Auden's mother, who had a very strong character, "'...maybe he's changed.' [Auden] 'People don't change. If anything, you get more set in your ways as you get older, not less.'".

Lastly, I chose this one which shows the issues between Heidi, Auden's dad and their baby, Thisbe (yep, Thisbe.)... "'Heidi loves you.' [Auden] 'And I her,' he said. 'But sometimes, love isn't enough.'".

Overall, this is a cute story, but it dragged a teeny bit at points and was slightly similar to other books.

5 comments:

I love contemporaries and apparently Sarah Dessen is amazing at writing them. I love when characters are easily formed and well described. This sounds good but I hate when things are dragged on. Love the cover. Fab review Charli!